I have been working at Ontario Securities Commission full-time (More than 5 years)

Pros

- Great work/life balance. 9-5 is an overstatement.- Generally liberal policy with regard to vacation or working from home.

Cons

- Highly politicized. Nothing is measured and the Peter Principle is in full effect.- People are not motivated to do good work. Those who do are often ostracized.- Market knowledge exists in very small, sparse pockets of the organization.- Little-to-no career movement. Promotions often have more to do with being lucky via backfill and you're unlikely to develop any marketable skills.- Some of the worst management I've ever worked with. At the same time good managers are often abused and driven out by staff infighting and internecine warfare.

Advice to Management

- Become results-driven and reward demonstrable performance.- Hire lawyers and accountants when you need them as opposed to assuming you need lawyers and accountants for everything.- Make people accountable including HR.

I have been working at Ontario Securities Commission full-time (More than 5 years)

Pros

Good benefits, good vacation, you don't get much done (not sure if this is a pro or con, depends on the point of view)

Cons

It's a very stagnant organization. There is no opportunity for career advancement at all. If you want to just clock in and out, or come to have 3 children and not have issues with mat leave, that's your place. But if you want to learn, progress in your career, complete something meaningful- I would not recommend this place for you. HR are completely useless, they are always on the managers' side. Management only worries about their own bonuses, and how the organization "appears" to external people, not caring about the people who actually work here. Harassment and bullying are totally ok, it's perfectly fine for a manager to scream at an employee's face. I am extremely disappointed by this place and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

- great benefits- work life balance- great pay based when you consider work-life balance for lawyers and accountants

Cons

- hierarchy society, pecking order" management, lawyers, accountants then everyone else- morale was low, even with management and lawyers who were treated better other staff- no real way to move up if you are not a lawyer or accountant and preference given to CA over CMA, CGA and CFA not considered unless you have your CA/CPA already- management had no interest to improve policy and legislation that govern organization making it hard to improve on work- when audits did occur, management would only find fault with lower staff i.e. people who are not CA/CPA or lawyers instead of accepting that management and lawyers and accountants are partly to blame for execution of tasks- many people did not have real world experience in the work they were responsible for, and did not care to improve skills to know how to serve the sector better, this also caused management to invent projects and policies that did not improve the quality of the sector for the public and created unnecessary work for staff at the organization, especially when project ceased operations without notifying all staff involved that the project or work on the policy had ended

Advice to Management

As managers move on to other roles, replace them from leaders from the private sector who have the experience to manage people as well as understand the industry to create policy that better serve the public while minimizing unintended consequences from new policy enforced in the sector